• Belac's Guide to OpenRPG Etiquette

Belac's Guide to OpenRPG Etiquette

These simple rules-of-thumb, tips, and bits of information will help keep you from getting Ignored, kicked out of rooms, or banned from servers. They can also help you be less unpopular.

1) Dice spamming: Do not come into a lobby and start rolling a million dice. This lags everyone else.

2) Multiple room entry: If you do not immediately enter a room when you click to join it, wait a few seconds. Never click the join button many times, or you will end up joining it multiple times in a row and lag the room.

3) Assumptions: There are more games in the world than Dungeons & Dragons. Do not assume that people in a particular room are playing Dungeons & Dragons. Read the title of a room; if it does not say Dungeons & Dragons, it might not be Dungeons & Dragons, though it may still be. You should ask to make sure.

4) "I want to play!": If someone says they are running a game, and they do not specifically say they are running Dungeons & Dragons, do not say "I'll play!" until you know whether or not you actually know what game they are talking about.

5) Dungeons & Dragons editions: Before joining a game of D&D, make sure you know which edition it is. There are five editions of Dungeons & Dragons: Original D&D, Advanced D&D 1st edition, Advanced D&D 2nd edition, D&D 3.0 edition, and D&D 3.5 Both versions of AD&D are similar, and D&D 3.0 and D&D 3.5 are almost identical. Most people that run D&D 3.5 will let you use D&D 3.0 rules if you do not know the 3.5 rules.

6) Other games: These games are not D&D, so if you see these words in the title of a game, the game might not be D&D: Vampire (VtM), Werewolf, Mage, Demon, Exalted, Aberrant, Champions, Star Wars, Call of Cthulu (CoC), Dragonball Z (DBZ), Big Eyes Small Mouth (BESM), any Final Fantasy RPG (FFRPG), Elite, and Invasion Alternate, among others.

7) "Somebody DM!": Whining for somebody to DM in the lobby over and over is annoying. It is one thing to say that you want to get a game going, but you do not want to DM. It is another thing entirely to constantly whine about it without ceasing. If you want a game that badly, run it yourself.

8) "Somebody help me!": It is fine to ask for help with the rules for a game. In fact, most people do not mind helping a new gamer make a character, at least. However, be polite when asking for help, and do not whine like a small child when someone does not want to help you.

9) Playing styles: There are a wide range of playing styles out there. Some people like a lot of combat, some people like a lot of dialogue. Some people like lethal games, some like games where the heroes cannot die. Some people like realistic games, others like cinematic games. Before you run your mouth assuming that everyone will agree with your comments, make sure you consider this. While it is fine to have strong preferences, nobody wants to hear some elitist idiot talk about how everyone else is playing wrong.

10) In-Character and Out-of-Character: If your character is saying something, put it in " " quotations. When you are saying something not related to the game, put it in ( ) parenthesis.

11) Netspeak: Don't use netspeak or abbreviations like "IC" instead of "I see" when you're speaking in character or GMing. (Exception: In a modern game, if you play a character that's a hacker or something, he might talk like that.)

12) Emotes: You can use /he, /she, or /me at the beginning of a sentence to "emote" what you're doing.